Howl's Moving Castle 7/10

Hayao Miyazaki rises from the grave, or returns from retirement, to churn out another film for the whole family assuming that family is into drug induced hallucinations or have been declared legally insane.

Dating back to 2004 this film has all the polish expected from an animated feature. Lots of great backgrounds and detailed animation along with tons of cels demonstrates Studio Ghibli's skills haven't diminished since Spirited Away. It's not all smiles and chocolate though. I didn't care for the style of animation used for Howl's castle as it moves around but I believe this was a deliberate style choice and I thought a couple of the moving CG backgrounds really stood out as sparse compared to the super-detailed backgrounds of the rest of the film. I really liked the music and the end theme was OK. I liked all the VAs except for the main character Sophie. The JP dub used the same VA for both the 19 year old and 90 year old versions of Sophie and while I appreciate the effort I can't say I liked the 19 year old version at all. I have to say this is the reason this film gets a 8 and not a 9. The english version is much better since they use 2 VAs but I grade the JP versions so it's too bad this detracted from an otherwise great movie.

Howl's Moving Castle starts out as we meet Sophie Hatter, a young woman who seems unhappy in her life working in her family's hat shop. One night she gets a spell cast on her by the Witch of the Waste after being rescued by a mysterious young man earlier in the day. She is transformed into a 90 year old woman and is forbidden by the spell from telling anyone about it. Oddly she rushes off without even ATTEMPTING to tell anyone and goes off into the hills for no apparent reason. She promptly discovers a scarecrow that gets her into Howl's castle and to shelter from the storm that's raging.

I really felt that this rushed opening was a serious flaw in the movie. Howl is mentioned by some of the townspeople but we never get a real explanation of who or what he is or what Sophie is supposed to know about him. Sophie's abrupt departure is also somewhat retarded since she dashes off into the mountains with no shelter, little food, and no plan.

Once in the castle Sophie meets Markl, a little boy who lives with Howl and disguises himself as an old man to run a magic shop and Calcifer the fire demon who lives in the fireplace and powers the castle. The castle has one door but it can lead to 4 places. One leads to the outside of the moving castle, 2 lead to magic shops in different towns where Markl sells his wares, and one leads somewhere unknown. This final location is perhaps explained near the end of the film but it's not really clear. Sophie sets to work as a cleaning lady since the house is a wreck and befriends everyone there so she ends up staying.

It turns out that Howl has been getting involved in a war that's currently being waged between 2 countries but this is never really explained, Howl's involvement or the nature of the conflict. At first Howl is being pursued by the Witch of the Waste who seems to have some romantic agenda, this is why he's in a moving castle, so he can hide. Howl is later summoned by the king to help(?) in the war effort and sends Sophie as his mom to make excuses for him. There she meets the Witch again and has an audience with the court mage Suliman who turns out to be Howls magic teacher. The Witch is robbed of her powers by Suliman, Howl shows up, Suliman tells Sophie that Howl's a monster, and they all escape. Now Suliman is after them and carpet bombs a city looking for them. This is all very insane as far as I'm concerned. The film never really explains WHY Suliman gives a damn what Howl does but she really goes over the top trying to catch him.

In the end a Sophie saves Howl's soul, though this isn't really something they make out to be very important earlier, and everyone gets a happy ending. The movie's main point is how Sophie's outward appearance is related to her love for Howl but noone EVER mentions it after the initial spell. You just have to pay attention to her switches from old to young and back again.

This movie is great but it's more a collection of small good bits with the overall story being somewhat hodge-podge. Recommended but not the best Miyazaki film out there.